I have the greatest privilege of being associated with Native cultures of many continents.. thus satisfying my curiosity and desire to travel and the chance to help them with my medical expertise. these notes are from those travels. I am a professor at the University of Havana

samedi 3 novembre 2012

HAVANA TO MIAMI: IN 39 MINUTES YOU CAN BE IN ANOTHER PLANET

AA 9471 HAV-MIA 39 Minutes15 minutes after leaving Havana, our aircraft was already over the Marathon Bridge, by 30 minutes we had entered the Everglades National park, descending into Miami.However you look at it, this is an incredible journey.

(Friends in La Habana, Cuba. It is so difficult to say Good Bye to them, but it is always, See you soon, anyway)

It took me five minutes to check in at Terminal 2 HAV. Another five minutes for Immigration and Security, with plenty of time to be alone in the bare terminal 2, which handle only the flights from Miami, normally 7 or 8 per day. All other international flights arrive and depart from Terminal 3, the futuristic looking terminal, shops selling not the nostalgic stuff of the pre revolutionary era for the departing Miami passengers but offering what the modern cuba has to offer including its literature..I think of my friends,long discourses with them. It is an intellectually intense city, the most intense that I have known, every one is eager for an intellectual exchange (in your circle).You learn so much in the course of a day.Pensamiento Venuzuelano does not mean it does not exist elsewhere, said the astute cuban cultural attache to Caracas. His succint summary in less than half an hour explained clearly the origins of Cuban thought, its origins and its evolution.Iatrogenic damage, inflicted by doctors on patients..by words. We talked about this in the context of the power structure between patients and doctors, very similar whether it happens in the USA or Argentina or Spain, where the doctor creates an ambience of anxiety in the patient to justify his high fees or extensive investigations, by exaggerating at first the diagnosis, eventually negating his own diagnosis, letting the patient suffer in the meantime.So many conversations, so many topics, day after day. Absence of internet, constant ringing of phones or text messages.. one truly appreciates the silence of the technology because only in that silence the mind can be productive.From this joyous, selfless world of intellectuals, I descend into the land of Fake people, Fraud and Fascism, a common accomplice.It all happens in just 39 minutes..The point of my entry into the USA, is Miami, is not very reflective of the innovative, open and hospitable space of the USA but reflect the greed and narrow mindedness of recent migrants to a richer pasture.. it is important to escape this to a more humane part of the USA.. fortunately there are the Native Indians!At the tarmac in Miami, I could see 2 Air Berlin, 2 Lufthansa, 1 Air france, 1 TAP, 1 TAM, 1 Alitalia and numerous other flights from Latin American and Caribbean islands..Welcome to this new world...Just a few hours ago, I was walking hand in hand with a dear friend of mine, with such sweet conversation among us; that repeated every day, more than once..those who constantly say that their country is the best, have not tried to see what other exciting places are out there in this wide wide world.. The place chooses you and I am so glad Cuba, La Habana has chosen me...

Qui êtes-vous ?

Ever since being a Medical Student and Trainee Doctor in Melbourne, London and Miami, I have been involved in Interantional Medicine . Currently I am associated with the excellent Peer to Peer Network for Diabetes care in Cambodia, Mo Po Tsyo, www.mopotsyo.org.
Also with the help of my good friends in Bogor, Indonesia we hope to do something similar but in a much smaller scale.
It is easy to tell you what I am: an Endocrinologist and a Medical Anthropologist, engaged in both fields.
Cuba, Miami and American Indians are the worlds that usually I rotate around. in the occident and Cambodia and Indonesia in the orient.

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Welcome to Cuba, Welcome to My World and Yours as well

Ever since I was a child, I have lived in two countries at a time and the countries changed: Brunei, Australia, Sweden, USA, England, Jamaica, various places in the USA..Now Cuba and USA with a definite commitment to the North American Indians (Los Indios)..

For a period, 2001-2014, there were numerous visits to Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia and Myanmar.Hope you enjoy reading my emotional outpourings, written on the road.. from a lover of Cuban Mind and Affections inside the island and the innocence of the Indigenous peoples..

We live with great expectation that the new rapprochement with the Govt of President Obama, will bring more changes, intellectual and cross cultural contacts and a broadening of the minds on both sides of the Straits.